As is known, radio communication systems typically include communication units that communicate via communication resources. Communication resources are defined by the multiplexing scheme utilized in the particular communication system. For example, with frequency division multiplexing (FDM), the communication resource may be a frequency carrier or pair of frequency carriers; whereas, with time division multiplexing (TDM), the communication resource may be a time slot or pair of time slots in one or more time frames. To control allocation of the communication resources, the communication system employs a central controller to allocate and maintain the communication resources. In addition, the central processor generally provides access to a telephone switching network when a communication unit's user desires to converse with a telephone service subscriber.
Communications in wireless communication systems generally necessitate communication resources with bandwidths appropriate for the type of communication. For example, voice and long data messages, such as file transfers or facsimile transmissions, require wider bandwidths than short data messages, such as pages. Present day wireless communication systems are constructed to support either wide bandwidth (long) messages or narrow bandwidth (short) messages, but not both. The decision to utilize separate systems for long and short messages is based on spectral, or bandwidth, efficiency since transceiving long messages on a short message system requires multiple short messages and transceiving short messages on a long message system results in unused, or wasted, bandwidth. Therefore, users that utilize both wide and narrow bandwidth messages are currently required to access two separate messaging systems.
In contrast, wireline communication systems, such as public telephone and computer networks, do provide means for transceiving both long and short data messages. However, these systems do not allow simultaneous reception of both message types. Therefore, when a computer user is receiving a long message, or large file, over a computer network, the user cannot receive a short electronic mail message without an interruption in the reception of the long message. Alternatively, in a telephone network with "call waiting", a telephone subscriber's current conversation is interrupted with a "clicking" sound while being notified of another incoming call.
Therefore, a need exists for a more efficient method of transceiving varying bandwidth messages in a single wireless communication system without introducing the service interruptions present in wireline communication systems.